Holopoint Interactive
CEO Corner
Welcome back to the CEO corner at Holopoint. It has been a busy couple of months for us with some exciting developments in the Holopoint machine. But it is not only the present that excites and ignites us, it is equally the future.
In Australia recently I attended SimTect 2010, the peak body industry conference for the simulation industry. This year’s SimTect was presented with the theme of “Simulation – Improving Capability and Reducing the Cost of Ownership”. It was an honour for Holopoint to once again exhibit on the South Australian stand and to chair three panel sessions of the conference.
The theme was timely, as defence in particular looks toward the evolution of its current simulation technologies as opposed to a revolution in training approaches. It was also apparent that there was a greater understanding that seventeen to twenty two year old recruits, apprentices and first time job applicants can by and large do three things: they can read, they can write, and they can play video games.
This realisation underscores the relevance of leveraging the video game literacy in future training and education. Certainly the future looks bright for developers in this space who have not only the technical capability, but the ability to engage in approaches that are innovative and speaks to the game literacy of the end user.
So where are these developers going to come from? My opinion is that the vast majority of the future development capability of the serious games space doesn’t even know it yet.
The Anime and Video game Convention (AVCon) held in Adelaide, July 2010, contains within it the Indie Games Room (IGR). The IGR is and has always been about the future capability of developers across interactive digital media. Now in its third year, the IGR provides a non-competitive developer space for novice and professional developers alike to engage with literally thousands of game players. It is an industry development platform like no other in Australia and was developed to provide experience and potential market opportunity for all past, present and future developers.
With initiatives such as the IGR giving young developers the opportunity to cut their teeth on a real world project, we are planting the seeds for a future skilled work force. Yes, it is a long play, but the time and effort invested in them now will have significant outcomes in 5 years time. In fact, we are seeing outcomes currently that trace back to the very first Indie Games Room. Companies started, demos commercialised, entry level developers employed throughout the country, local skilled freelance workforce established, education pathways defined, career pathways defined, game developer clubs, tertiary level game collaborations, aspiration, ambition, tenacity, determination and passion.
That’s why no matter how excited we get for all the cool stuff we get to work on throughout the Holopoint daily routine, we will always be inspired by the future.
